aardvark

"We've seen a change in culture under his leadership," says a bank lobbyist of new OCC chief Thomas Curry. Curry promises to end the cozy relationship between banks and their key regulator. The first order of business was the resignation of 19-year veteran bureaucrat Julie Williams, whose main calling card was helping the big banks resist pesky state regulations. [View news story]

Mr Curry has approximately 20 years experience working in bank regulation.According to Wikipedia "Prior to becoming Comptroller of the Currency, Mr. Curry served as a Director of the FDIC since January 2004. At the FDIC, he served as Chairman of the FDIC's Assessment Appeals Committee and Case Review Committee, and Chairman of the NeighborWorks® America Board of Directors."That's a long time to be blind to the practices that led to the 2008 collapse, and I suspect Mr Curry isn't going to be blowing any whistles now.

More structural than cyclical is S&P's view of weak Wall Street earnings. Return on equity at the major investment banks - usually 15% in okay times - was just 7% in 2011. Goldman Sachs - legendary for killing it no matter what - earned just 3.7% ROE vs. 32.7% in 2007. Regulations, higher capital requirements, and toxic attitudes attitudes towards the TBTFs are all weighing. [View news story]

Adam, thanks for the link. I'd like to see in addition how the loss of interest from savings investment compares to gains from the stock market in overall wealth and who is affected most. Pension funds and 401k's go up, conservative savings investors lose. Not sure how that comparison can be stated.

More structural than cyclical is S&P's view of weak Wall Street earnings. Return on equity at the major investment banks - usually 15% in okay times - was just 7% in 2011. Goldman Sachs - legendary for killing it no matter what - earned just 3.7% ROE vs. 32.7% in 2007. Regulations, higher capital requirements, and toxic attitudes attitudes towards the TBTFs are all weighing. [View news story]

It would be interesting to know in an exact way what the result of minimal interest rates has been. You make a good point of where it has impacted negatively, I wonder what the actual cost/return is?

More structural than cyclical is S&P's view of weak Wall Street earnings. Return on equity at the major investment banks - usually 15% in okay times - was just 7% in 2011. Goldman Sachs - legendary for killing it no matter what - earned just 3.7% ROE vs. 32.7% in 2007. Regulations, higher capital requirements, and toxic attitudes attitudes towards the TBTFs are all weighing. [View news story]

In 2009 Bernanke called for "green shoots", Mohammed El Erian of PIMCO called for a "new normal". Figuring conservatively that 3 million people have been added to the unemployment roles at a potential loss of $30,000 per income, that's $90,000,000,000.00 taken out of the economy anually in wages alone. That doesn't count losses due to housing foreclosures, retirement benefits, health care,etc.That is where we really are.

The unstated problems may superficially appear as concerns about Greece. The real underlying problem is not Greece. It is the fragile state of Italy and Spain and Ireland and Portugal. This isto say nothing of a massive derivative market that underpins the fate of all these countries. Last but not least comes the wobbly political decision-making and choices awaiting the US this year as budget decisions must be made by people unwilling to discuss compromise or reality.

These comments from the Center for Disease control:"Four modifiable health risk behaviors—lack of physical activity, poor nutrition, tobacco use, and excessive alcohol consumption—are responsible for much of the illness, suffering, and early death related to chronic diseases""7 out of 10 deaths among Americans each year are from chronic diseases. Heart disease, cancer and stroke account for more than 50% of all deaths each year"http://1.usa.gov/HequWs"During the past 20 years, there has been a dramatic increase in obesity in the United States and rates remain high. In 2010, no state had a prevalence of obesity less than 20%. ....More than one-third of U.S. adults (35.7%) are obese.Approximately 17% (or 12.5 million) of children and adolescents aged 2—19 years are obese."http://1.usa.gov/I0fKHr

Thanks for your comment.Remediating health care problems is a dauntingly difficult challenge. That goes from instituting computerized patient records in a nationally accessible format to dealing with the enormous complexity of medical procedures. It's truly mindboggling. This is to say nothing of devising ways to modify life-style behaviors to prevent disease from occurring. On the other hand, as Mr Muoio noted, other countries have done it and so can we.

What you are saying in a ranting ridiculous manner applies equally well to the military debacles of the past 40 years.There are interesting parallels between stupid reckless wars and stupid reckless health care. Raving and ranting no matter how prolific won't make either any better.Muoio's considered comparison of US health care and it's cost compared with other countries is instructive. I suggest you read it before beginning another time-consuming tirade.Personally I think you use the concept of the free-market determining health care as a substitution for critical analysis.

Standing applause was for Muoio, not the resonse to strike the constitutionality of universal insurance. My occupation as a prosthetist and consultant for a large hospital network has shown me that when private insurance coverage is primary there is a thin line that separates all of us from disaster. It is based on profit- making, meaning limiting access, limiting payment, and often using lowest cost proviiders regardless of outcomes. We have a raging epidemic of obesity and all the problems it brings. There are currently about 25 million Americans affected by diabetes growing at a rate of approximately 1.5 million a year. Heart disease follows a simillar exponential increase in frequency. The overhang of these conditions along wiith cancer and other chronic diseases on the national economy is overwhelming. It is a crushing burden to the national economy that must be resolved for the US to survive. The political refusal to discuss this openly and honestly is like an invisible war that rages out of sight and out of mind but exacts a toll nevertheless.Mr Muoio summed up the problem well. The economic and social consequences are far-reaching and inescapable. The issue is not constitutionality or ideology, the issue is survival.

Exact agreement with Seer. The useless garbage piled up for forty years is way ovedue for recycling. Otherwise,maybe the symbol of the eagle should be replaced with a suffocating ostrich surrounded by an overweight, waddling donkey and a blind, obese elephant.

Health care insurance can NEVER be a profit-making area without creating excessive stresses handed down somewhere along the line. Health CARE itself can be provided by private PROPVIDERS compensated by a universal INSURANCE system with PRIVATE OPTIONS like Medicare's secondaries available. Generally the knee-jerk reaction is to confuse the two. The FACT is Dimon is correct. The same demands for having a Single Payer Universal Military System we all pay for applies to health care. Interestingly there are mirror problems in running both that are bankrupting the country and costing lives.

It's interesting that there is no fundamental agreement on the most addressable problems.1.Universal single payer insurance. This has the sole potential of streamlining the costs and raising the level of available care.It would remove the burden of health care from corporations and small companies and make them more competitive.There is no substitute, only delay. Health care provided properly is not profit making but it is LOSS SAVING.2.National infrastructure program to absorb unemployed skilled workers and expaqnd the skills of workers using private and public resources.3.Education. Stop funding costly for-profit tech schools with gov't money. Focus shoulld be given to enhancing the lives of POOR CHILDREN of this country instead of packing them ever more tightly into fewer classrooms with fewer reasources. This mode of thinking is criminal and ironically breeds criminals and dependency.4.Energy independence. Implement energy saving programs including improving structural technology.5.Eliminate national disasters like THE WAR ON DRUGS.6.Utilize low loan rates and tax benefits. There has never been a cheaper time to borrow. The fact is that there are many approaches that have buillt-in cost benefit potential that are never addressed seriously. These are easy to list but the fact is there no serious consideration discussed in a national forum. All we get is partiisan bickering and blaming public broadcasting for whatever efforts are made at elucidation.THE QUESTION I S WHAT DEGREE OF DESPERATION IS NECESSARY TO MAKE CHANGES?